Nomos 27

MYSIA. Lampsakos. Circa 350-340 BC. Stater (Gold, 20 mm, 8.50 g, 9 h). Head of bearded Kabeiros to left, wearing a laureate pilos. Rev. Forepart of Pegasus to right; all within a very shallow incuse square. Baldwin 39d and pl. III, 27 (this coin). Kraay-Hirmer 732. Regling, Ward, 612 (this coin). Traité II, 2, 2550 and pl. clxxi, 17 (= B 39c, same dies). Rare, one of five known examples. With a head of very fine style, but reminiscent of that of a contemporary Persian satrap! Reverse struck from a worn die, otherwise, extremely fine.

From the Exceptional Private Collection, Leu Numismatics 76, 27 October 1999, 154, ex Bank Leu 25, 23 April 1980, 137 and from the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and John Ward, Sotheby's Zurich, 4 April 1973, 518.

The head on the obverse of this coin has been identified as Odysseus by some, perhaps because of its similarity to heads definitely of Odysseus found on coins from Ithaca (as BMC Peloponnesus 7-9 ff. and HGC 6, 121 ff.) and to the head on the standing figure of the denarii of C. Mamilius Limetanus (Crawford 362). The wreath makes it clear that this is, in fact, Kabeiros.